Federal Web Users Warned Away from WikiLeaks Content

Internet advocates and First Amendment
activists were appalled. "The first serious infowar is now engaged. The
field of battle is WikiLeaks. You are the troops," tweeted Electronic
Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow.

"The First Amendment to the Constitution
guarantees freedom of expression against government encroachment-but
that doesn't help if the censorship doesn't come from the government,"
the EFF's Rainey Reitman wrote on the foundation's blog. EFF
acknowledged that Amazon has its "own First Amendment right" to choose
whether or not to host WikiLeaks, but said it was "unfortunate" that
the company decided not to.

"Amazon ran away with its tail between its legs," wrote Reitman.

The United States has what Attorney General
Eric Holder calls "an active, ongoing, criminal investigation" into
WikiLeaks' release of the diplomatic cables. Holder said this week that
the release jeopardized national security, diplomatic efforts and U.S.
relationships around the world, even though Robert Gates had downplayed
the incident.

The government can't take official action to
silence WikiLeaks' ongoing publications as it would be an
unconstitutional prior restraint, or censorship of speech, said the
EFF.

The U.S. government is also trying to get
people to not read WikiLeaks, as it tries to shut it down. The Office
of Management and Budget's general counsel today directed all federal
agencies to "safeguard classified information" by barring employees
from accessing the WikiLeaks Website, according to an e-mail obtained
by Talking Points Memo.

The Library of Congress blocked the site from
all its user and employee computer terminals, according to TPM. The
site also claims that the State Department has warned prospective hires
that writing about WikiLeaks on Twitter or Facebook could cost them
that job. According to Gawker, military installations in Iraq are
trying to keep soldiers from reading about WikiLeaks by putting up a
warning page saying accessing the page was against the law.

"This page simply warns the user that the
Website they are about to view may contain classified documents and
that such documents should not be viewed, downloaded or distributed on
NIPR computers," a spokesperson for the U.S. forces in Iraq said,
according to Gawker. There is apparently a button at the bottom of the
warning page that then allows the user to go to the Website.

Not everyone is trying to shut down WikiLeaks.
A Republican Congressman from Texas, Ron Paul, posted on Twitter, "Re:
WikiLeaks-In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth. In a
society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble."